Yesterday evening, I was watching Cecil B. DeMille's masterpiece, "The Ten Commendments" on the new HDTV. Yes, I've seen it a bazillion times, but I wanted to see how the special effects held up — and the answer is that you can kind of see how the magic is done. (One of the disadvantages of the close-up view, I suppose, is that sometimes the magic behind the curtain is a little too exposed.) Which is pretty much what Dahlia Lathwick does with this snippet from her op-ed this morning:

Monica Goodling had a problem. As senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Justice Department liaison to the White House, she no longer seemed to know what the truth was. She also must have been increasingly unclear about who her superiors were. This didn't used to be a problem for Goodling. Everything was once very certain: Her boss's truth was always the same as God's truth. Her boss was always either God or one of His staffers….

…Her chief claim to professional fame appears to have been loyalty to the president and to the process of reshaping the Justice Department in his image (and, thus, His image). A former career official there told The Washington Post that Goodling "forced many very talented career people out of main Justice so she could replace them with junior people that were either loyal to the administration or would score her some points." And as she rose at Justice, a former classmate said, Goodling "developed a very positive reputation for people coming from Christian schools into Washington looking for employment in government, always ready to offer encouragement and be a sounding board."…

No, the real concern here is that Goodling and her ilk somehow began to conflate God's work with the president's. Probably not a lesson she learned in law school. The dream of Regent and its counterparts, such as Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, is to redress perceived wrongs to Christians, to reclaim the public square and reassert Christian political authority. And while that may have been a part of the Bush/Rove plan, it was only a small part. Their real zeal was for earthly power. And Goodling was left holding the earthly bag.

In the end, Goodling and the other young foot soldiers for God may simply have run afoul of the first rule of politics, codified in Psalm 146: "Put not your trust in princes, in mere mortals in whom there is no help." (emphasis mine)

Somehow, Machiavelli got to be an interchangeable text with The Bible in someone's mind, and a thirst for power replaced the hunger for working toward salvation. But, and this is a very big but, Machiavelli was meant as a cautionary tale, not a users' manual. Someone forgot to tell Goodling and her fellow Bushies that The Bible is not a text that was ever meant to be cherry-picked as a justification for being able to screw over whomever you please, or as an excuse to be able to do whatever you want, grasping for promotions and chits from the powerful along the way.

Perhaps a review of The Ten Commandments would have helped — the first commandment reads: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." That includes Presidents who say they talk to God, as well as their political power broker minions, too, and not just golden calves — and working hard to curry favor with any of the above is an act that worships power and what you can get from it. Nothing more, nothing less. Anyone who thinks securing earthly power, consolidating one's position and amassing a number of favors owed to you that you can call in when you need them is the point of existence is worshiping at the alter of Gordon Gekko.

Decency and ethics always has a place in public service. But simply slapping a "Christian" label on yourself is not an excuse for grasping, greedy behavior because you have some back-of-your-mind understanding that you can ask forgiveness for your piss poor behavior later. That's a post hoc ergo propter hoc justification, and it doesn't fly. God has not rewarded you with the promotion — you earned it all on your own by stabbing a whole lot of people in the back and, thereby, appealing to the crowd of malignant political minions who were looking for just such a self-serving, grasping person to stab a few more people in the back. Congratulations, Monica, you've lived up to the very low standard of Karl Rove.

Ahn-drew is right. These people aren’t Christians, they are “Christianists.” Their so-called faith isn’t a belief system, it’s a toolkit. One would be tempted to call them Pharisees, but then one doubts that they know the Gospels well enough to realize that that’s not a compliment.

At the risk of POing people, I’m reposting my EPUed comment on the last thread, which seems equally pertinent here:

Mark C @ 20, HotFlash @ 25 & coniptionfit @ 119:

While looking for something else in my “Pithy Quotes” file this morning I found this:

“The national government is not like a hotel room that you can occupy for a night and trash like a rock star. You’re a temporary resident, but you have responsibilities that go beyond the duration of your occupancy. All the denizens of these institutions have to think of themselves as responsible for the well-being of the institutions they temporarily occupy.” William Galston, a professor at the University of Maryland, quoted in the Washington Post, February 11, 1999.

While the quote was in regard to the Republican-controlled Congress’ behavior during the impeachment debacle in Clinton’s second term, it is even more applicable to the administration and rubber-stamp Congress of the Dubya era.

Mark C, I don’t believe that this threat will be anywhere near over even if there is a return to a “semblance of democracy” in 2008. There’s no way the authoritarian elements in the GOP are going to skulk back into their “Think” Tank office chairs and church pews and not begin to scheme for their next takeover attempt, any more than the Bolsheviks threw in the towel after the 1905 uprising.

The “Long War” that the American people are in for is not against Islam, or even “Islamofascism”, whatever that is. It is against the revolutionary cabal that the Republican Party has become as a result of its takeover by Christian Dominionists, “unitary executive” apostles and neoconservative empire builders. The Republican Party has become a subversive organization, and it is now the greatest threat to the future of American democracy.

Mary, dear, it’s a crap shoot. You have to develope a certain zen feeling about it. And what are you doing on a computer with a migraine? Shouldn’t you be somewhere calmer? OOOHHHMMM…..
( Hope you feel better soon)

Mary, dear, it’s a crap shoot. You have to develope a certain zen feeling about it. And what are you doing on a computer with a migraine? Shouldn’t you be somewhere calmer? OOOHHHMMM…..
( Hope you feel better soon)

Yes, the light from the monitor is a monster. Shutting down now. Think I will take a day without info. Thanks.

The “Long War” that the American people are in for is not against Islam, or even “Islamofascism”, whatever that is. It is against the revolutionary cabal that the Republican Party has become as a result of its takeover by Christian Dominionists, “unitary executive” apostles and neoconservative empire builders. The Republican Party has become a subversive organization, and it is now the greatest threat to the future of American democracy.

Yes, we need to prepare now to respond to the inevitable swiftboating of our candidates, constant attempts to undermine the government of our next Democratic president, and defusing the time bombs that the Bushies have left all over the federal government. The ‘06 elections were just one step of many, and the even with further victories in ‘08, this will be far from over.

I beg to differ. Niccolo was no ‘namby-pamby pablum puker’ looking to dissuade a guileless noble from the dark path, but a technocrat seeking a position within the hierarchy, offering practical theories of power acquisition and retention.
He was tortured by the existing power structure for his associations also, which adds a certain modern relevance.

Unlike the allegations of Camus dabbling, it is almost a certainty that The Prince is nowhere to be found on a White House night table.

“..a wise prince should establish himself on that which is his own control and not in that of others; he must endeavour to avoid hatred, as is noted.”

One of the more fascinating books I’ve read in the past couple of years was The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason, by Charles Freeman. It addresses how western civilization descended into the Dark Ages and as you suggest the manner in which Christianity developed in the 4th through 6th centuries was a central part of the story.

I always wonder how the Goodling sect of Christians squares their beliefs and actions with, um, what’s that pesky book again? Oh, yeah, the Bible!

When they can quote me where Jesus said blessed are the moneymakers, or hate your enemy and make his life a living hell, then maybe I’ll listen.

I go to church nearly every Sunday. Every week, we hear this.

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord our God with with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

The Christian Right likes to talk about the second coming, but as much as I can know something, I know that were he to show up tomorrow, Jesus wouldn’t be hanging with Pat “I can leg press a Honda” Robertson or Jerry “Feminists and gays caused 9/11″ Falwell. Their lives are an ongoing refutation of the Word they allegedly champion. And it’s so obvious it amazes me that no one calls them on it.

Actually, not that good and actor. Unless you like all your characters to be the same one.

I did like his performance in “A Touch of Evil”, among others. I try to separate his acting from his political views. As I do with John Wayne and some other ultra-right wingers or fascists, if you will. James Stewert is another name that comes to mind in this vein. ;0)

IIRC, it was either the Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman or the author Chris Hedges (who has a DD from Harvard Divinity School) who has written that there is no such thing as a 100% Biblical literalist. There can be only selective literalists because there are so many internal contradictions within the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Robertson, Falwell, and Dobson, et al, are selective literalists in spades.

AP – Joining a growing list of Republicans, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should consider resigning. The possible presidential candidate said the botched firing of U.S. attorneys has destroyed Gonzales’ credibility as the nation’s top law enforcer.

One of our parishioners teaches at a nearby seminary, and he likes to challenge his more conservative students with this thought: there’s more evidence in the bible supporting slavery than there is condemning homosexuality. He says it to get them thinking, which is usually a good idea. But they don’t always appreciate it.

Which brings me back the Episcopalian mantra: we take the bible too seriously to take it literally.

IIRC, it was either the Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman or the author Chris Hedges (who has a DD from Harvard Divinity School) who has written that there is no such thing as a 100% Biblical literalist. There can be only selective literalists because there are so many internal contradictions within the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Robertson, Falwell, and Dobson, et al, are selective literalists in spades.

Please don’t get me started on this administration and God. Just saw Pres. McFlightsuit on CNN talking about praying for the troops, etc.

After all the death and dismemberment he & Darth have sanctioned it’s amazing the pew he sits in doesn’t spontaneously combust as soon as he sits down.

Over 100,000 deaths directly attributable to him and him neocon buddies. Think about that. And as anyone who comes here regularly knows, that is a conservative number- the total could be six times higher.

Hopping back to the previous thread, that’s what makes the media’s role in this all the more despicable; they know all of this and Gregory still can serve as MC Turdblossom’s backup dancer.

One of the more fascinating books I’ve read in the past couple of years was The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason, by Charles Freeman. It addresses how western civilization descended into the Dark Ages and as you suggest the manner in which Christianity developed in the 4th through 6th centuries was a central part of the story.

Churchill, writing in his “History of the English Speaking Peoples” talked about the decline of Roman influence over the periphery of Europe as being “Like the tide going out”. The imagery often occurs to me when I hear the nonsense these counter enlightenment fools spout. Churchill, of course, was also famous for the phrase “A new Dark Age”. They will take us there, if we let them.

Goodling is allowed to have her personal beliefs and hopefully, as in most of us, that tempers our decisions in life when it comes to our relationships with others. She appears to have let her beliefs overwhelm her judgement with what is proper. If she is coming out of colleges that preached that Christians should make all the decisions based on their interpertation then she was a mind that never explored outside her insular little world.

I doubt if the schools she attended tolerated much original thought. She was/is a believer waiting to be lead and so cocksure of the rightousness of her belief system she had no checks or balances in her professional life. She probably strongly believes she was correcting the false idea of separation of church and state.

Oh I LOVE The Ten Commandments! My late friend and colleague Richard Rouilard once performed a Passover service in drag (he called it “Crossover”) in which Jehovah’s name was replaced with “Anne Baxter” (as in “And Anne Baxter led the children of Israel out of Egypt.”)

Do you relaize that the only major cast member still alive is Nina Foch?

And she’s thriving, I’m happy to say. Saw her just a few months back at an Academy screening of Cleopatra and she looked marvelous!

She has my favorite line in the whole movie: “You dig your grave with your tongue, Memnet!”

You’d think he would wake up and see we are living the nightmare of the Planet of the Republickcans. Ms Good?ling is one of countless examples. He joined the orangutans and is eyes are not very bright anymore.

AZ Matt
Just finished Wolfowitz article in New Yorker. Did you read it? Short version: turning WB into arm of U.S. foreign policy (favored countries annoited by U.S. & punishing W’s enemies), doing nation buidling (including Baghdad office) that he couldn’t do in DOD. Staff leaving. Just about what I expected to read. Thanks again.

Precisely. Which is why whenever Teh Professional Faithful wring their hands about western Europeans turning their back on the church I always think: Why yes. They’ve experienced several hundred years of tearing themselves apart over small distinctions between the same religion and decided they’ve had quite enough of it.

Unfortunately the early colonization of the United States was due to the immigration of religious groups (fanatics)to avoid “persecution” for their religious beliefs.
So you have descendants of what once was considered deviant cults; Pilgrims,Puritans, Quakers, Lutherans, Catholics, Amish, Shakers, as well as homegrown Latter Day Saints, current Opus Dei, Moonies, etc… who believed then and still do that they have been singled out and suffer for God’s work. Antipsychotics and a glass of water should be substituted for communion and wine.

AZ Matt: “She appears to have let her beliefs overwhelm her judgement with what is proper.”

Don’t turn yourself inside out respecting her religious beliefs. That is a given.

When someone’s faith in religion is matched by an equally strong committment of faith to an authority that has put her in a position to execute an unethical and potentially criminal policy, you can dispense with the compassionate understanding of the poor woman’s plight. Consider that she was chosen precisely because of these attributes.

She can own this. She should own this. And if she is held accountable for her own handiwork, then we’ll have some chance of reclaiming a nation of laws with integrity in its Department of Justice.

Not long ago, it was rare for Regent graduates to join the federal government. But in 2001, the Bush administration picked the dean of Regent’s government school, Kay Coles James, to be the director of the Office of Personnel Management — essentially the head of human resources for the executive branch. The doors of opportunity for government jobs were thrown open to Regent alumni.

“We’ve had great placement,” said Jay Sekulow , who heads a non profit law firm based at Regent that files lawsuits aimed at lowering barriers between church and state. “We’ve had a lot of people in key positions.”

Many of those who have Regent law degrees, including Goodling, joined the Department of Justice. Their path to employment was further eased in late 2002, when John Ashcroft , then attorney general, changed longstanding rules for hiring lawyers to fill vacancies in the career ranks

(snip)

Now let us look at a relevant excerpt from Article VI of the Constitution:

(snip)

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. (My emphasis)

Unfortunately the early colonization of the United States was due to the immigration of religious groups (fanatics)to avoid “persecution” for their religious beliefs.
So you have descendants of what once was considered deviant cults; Pilgrims,Puritans, Quakers, Lutherans, Catholics, Amish, Shakers, as well as homegrown Latter Day Saints, current Opus Dei, Moonies, etc… who believed then and still do that they have been singled out and suffer for God’s work. Antipsychotics and a glass of water should be substituted for communion and wine.

The Christian Right likes to talk about the second coming, but as much as I can know something, I know that were he to show up tomorrow, Jesus wouldn’t be hanging with Pat “I can leg press a Honda” Robertson or Jerry “Feminists and gays caused 9/11″ Falwell. Their lives are an ongoing refutation of the Word they allegedly champion. And it’s so obvious it amazes me that no one calls them on it.

AZ Matt
Just finished Wolfowitz article in New Yorker. Did you read it? Short version: turning WB into arm of U.S. foreign policy (favored countries annoited by U.S. & punishing W’s enemies), doing nation buidling (including Baghdad office) that he couldn’t do in DOD. Staff leaving. Just about what I expected to read. Thanks again.

I found the comment that he is thinker, not a doer, interesting. He also lacked the guts to express his dismay at the implementation of the Iraq rebuilding effort. He is in over his head. The part of hiring folks from other countries don’t mean crap if his own people are the ones in actual control.

Unfortunately the early colonization of the United States was due to the immigration of religious groups (fanatics)to avoid “persecution” for their religious beliefs.
So you have descendants of what once was considered deviant cults; Pilgrims,Puritans, Quakers, Lutherans, Catholics, Amish, Shakers, as well as homegrown Latter Day Saints, current Opus Dei, Moonies, etc… who believed then and still do that they have been singled out and suffer for God’s work. Antipsychotics and a glass of water should be substituted for communion and wine.

Unfortunately sociopathy is a personality disorder (Axis II) and the meds don’t work on them

The Christian Right likes to talk about the second coming, but as much as I can know something, I know that were he to show up tomorrow, Jesus wouldn’t be hanging with Pat “I can leg press a Honda” Robertson or Jerry “Feminists and gays caused 9/11″ Falwell. Their lives are an ongoing refutation of the Word they allegedly champion. And it’s so obvious it amazes me that no one calls them on it.

I always wonder how the Goodling sect of Christians squares their beliefs and actions with, um, what’s that pesky book again? Oh, yeah, the Bible!

When they can quote me where Jesus said blessed are the moneymakers, or hate your enemy and make his life a living hell, then maybe I’ll listen.

I go to church nearly every Sunday. Every week, we hear this.

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord our God with with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

The Christian Right likes to talk about the second coming, but as much as I can know something, I know that were he to show up tomorrow, Jesus wouldn’t be hanging with Pat “I can leg press a Honda” Robertson or Jerry “Feminists and gays caused 9/11″ Falwell. Their lives are an ongoing refutation of the Word they allegedly champion. And it’s so obvious it amazes me that no one calls them on it.

I think there are going to be a large number of fundies exceedingly unhappy should their vaunted rapture occur.

AZ Matt
Just finished Wolfowitz article in New Yorker. Did you read it? Short version: turning WB into arm of U.S. foreign policy (favored countries annoited by U.S. & punishing W’s enemies), doing nation buidling (including Baghdad office) that he couldn’t do in DOD. Staff leaving. Just about what I expected to read. Thanks again.

I found the comment that he is thinker, not a doer, interesting. He also lacked the guts to express his dismay at the implementation of the Iraq rebuilding effort. He is in over his head. The part of hiring folks from other countries don’t mean crap if his own people are the ones in actual control.

Yes to all of yours, but none of that is new. In fact, today’s book on Rummy sez much the same about Wolfie, including the part about being in over his head. Thought the article did a nice job of presenting the Wolfie side, then debunking it.

The Christian Right likes to talk about the second coming, but as much as I can know something, I know that were he to show up tomorrow, Jesus wouldn’t be hanging with Pat “I can leg press a Honda” Robertson or Jerry “Feminists and gays caused 9/11″ Falwell. Their lives are an ongoing refutation of the Word they allegedly champion. And it’s so obvious it amazes me that no one calls them on it.

At the risk of POing people, I’m reposting my EPUed comment on the last thread, which seems equally pertinent here:

Mark C @ 20, HotFlash @ 25 & coniptionfit @ 119:

While looking for something else in my “Pithy Quotes” file this morning I found this:

“The national government is not like a hotel room that you can occupy for a night and trash like a rock star. You’re a temporary resident, but you have responsibilities that go beyond the duration of your occupancy. All the denizens of these institutions have to think of themselves as responsible for the well-being of the institutions they temporarily occupy.” William Galston, a professor at the University of Maryland, quoted in the Washington Post, February 11, 1999.

While the quote was in regard to the Republican-controlled Congress’ behavior during the impeachment debacle in Clinton’s second term, it is even more applicable to the administration and rubber-stamp Congress of the Dubya era.

Mark C, I don’t believe that this threat will be anywhere near over even if there is a return to a “semblance of democracy” in 2008. There’s no way the authoritarian elements in the GOP are going to skulk back into their “Think” Tank office chairs and church pews and not begin to scheme for their next takeover attempt, any more than the Bolsheviks threw in the towel after the 1905 uprising.

The “Long War” that the American people are in for is not against Islam, or even “Islamofascism”, whatever that is. It is against the revolutionary cabal that the Republican Party has become as a result of its takeover by Christian Dominionists, “unitary executive” apostles and neoconservative empire builders. The Republican Party has become a subversive organization, and it is now the greatest threat to the future of American democracy.

You are correct. It is going to be a long war. Too many elements in the Republican party do not put country first.

AZ Matt: “She appears to have let her beliefs overwhelm her judgement with what is proper.”

Don’t turn yourself inside out respecting her religious beliefs. That is a given.

When someone’s faith in religion is matched by an equally strong committment of faith to an authority that has put her in a position to execute an unethical and potentially criminal policy, you can dispense with the compassionate understanding of the poor woman’s plight. Consider that she was chosen precisely because of these attributes.

She can own this. She should own this. And if she is held accountable for her own handiwork, then we’ll have some chance of reclaiming a nation of laws with integrity in its Department of Justice.

She does own it but doesn’t want to. She wanted to be led around. She did have a choice and she made a bad choice. And with the examples of leadership from above, her enablers, she thought there would never be consequences.

First of all sister Hardin Smith, I am every day amazed at your fecund mind and your elegant and unforced prose. A thanx here from an old man who is no longer worried about the new generation that has inherited the mess we have made of the world.

With regard to the topic at hand and Dalhia Lathwick’s wonderful dissection of the christianist assembly line of willing soldiers, Digby has been offering a brilliant series called “Blog Against Theocracy…” which is emerging as a political and intellectual history of the christainst movement and the structure of ideas underneath the radical religious element of the neo fascist machine we are now confronting. I’m sure you have read every word that old man Digby has written on the subject but I think it might behove the rest a the Firepups ta bury their heads in his work.

Thanks again for offering hope to and old man on this day that is supposed to be a day of hope for the masses and…

AZ Matt: “She appears to have let her beliefs overwhelm her judgement with what is proper.”

Don’t turn yourself inside out respecting her religious beliefs. That is a given.

When someone’s faith in religion is matched by an equally strong committment of faith to an authority that has put her in a position to execute an unethical and potentially criminal policy, you can dispense with the compassionate understanding of the poor woman’s plight. Consider that she was chosen precisely because of these attributes.

She can own this. She should own this. And if she is held accountable for her own handiwork, then we’ll have some chance of reclaiming a nation of laws with integrity in its Department of Justice.

She does own it but doesn’t want to. She wanted to be led around. She did have a choice and she made a bad choice. And with the examples of leadership from above, her enablers, she thought there would never be consequences.

Some just have to learn the hard way.

The real tragedy, however, is what her infantile morality did to this coutry.

The last time I saw Charlton Heston in person was at the Academy’s William Wyler tribute several years back. He sat in the audience and was obviously too unwell to take the stage. The formal announcement of his Alzheimer’s shortly followed.

In the years prior to that I saw him a lot one event or another and we were both interviewed (separately) for a cable show about Hollywood. He was quite pleasant and gracious. A great career and a sad life.

I just wanted to point out that a person who has been much maligned here was the only one (other than on the blogs) I’ve seen to bring out that Pelosi’s trip was not the first trip to an unfriendly country by a Speaker of the House. Donna Brazile used Newt Gingrich’s trip to China to berate China about Taiwan, thereby attempting to run a dual foreign policy contrary to Clinton’s official policy, and Denny Hastert’s attempt to undermine Clinton in Columbia in her effort to defend Pelosi’s trip against the attacks of several of the other journalists present and absent. To me, it just goes to show that we should think twice before we go backbiting our own. Instead, it might be a good idea to recognise an ally’s weaknesses and sometimes failures, and help them work out their inequities to our mutual advantage rather than backbiting and alienating, which we really seem to have a tendency to do.

Hey from Russia. I was sitting at the window looking at two white horses and a carriage in the light April snow, enjoying my beef stroganoff and wifi, when the wifi went poof. I suppose all dreams must end at some point. But the horses are really cool.

We work tomorrow. Hope you guys had/are having a glorious Easter. Christianity is under assault not least from wingers that have a very odd interpretation of love your neighbor. Am trying to do the peacemaker thingie and it’s tough going. I feel I was called by God at an early age to do this work, and trust that He knows what He is doing.

The beauty of being mentally ill [not the phrase you hear every day] is that when regular life is difficult, you might as well do something really hard, because it’s not much different.

I’m surprised no one has brought up Ms. Goodling and the Ninth Commandment: you shall not bear false witness. Ninth Commandment, Fifth Amendment, Ninth Commandment, Fifth Amendment? Hmmm. In a pinch, Goodling appears to be a securalist after all.

Speaking of which, let’s not (on today of all days) forget John McCain’s crack about Alzheimer’s patients being able to hide their own Easter eggs.

That one line is a window into his soul.
Or lack thereof.

Charlton Heston came to West Virginia and southern Ohio in Oct of 2000. His visit in support of the NRA and the Presidential candidate Bush was well publicized and very effective with the “God, Guns and anti-Gay crowd”. This was one of Roves focus groups.

Roves strategy did not work in 2006! Too many of the young men in these areas who grow up hunting are now in Iraq

I just read American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges–I must read after reading about Goodling. Chris Hedges talks about dominionists wanting to create a Christian State.
I would love to give Chris Hedges a voice here on the Lake to talk about his book. Not sure who to suggest this to?

And here’s a lovely Latin list of looser logic: they use them all to great effect. It makes one wish to retaliate with argument Ad Baculum, but that would only be fighting fire with fire. A truly logical argument should be above that.

I’m surprised no one has brought up Ms. Goodling and the Ninth Commandment: you shall not bear false witness. Ninth Commandment, Fifth Amendment, Ninth Commandment, Fifth Amendment? Hmmm. In a pinch, Goodling appears to be a securalist after all.

Savage’s Globe piece ends with this lil nuggett:

One third-year student, Chamie Riley , said she rejected the idea that any government official who invokes her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination could be a good representative of Regent.

As Christians, she said, Regent students know “you should be morally upright. You should not be in a situation where you have to plead the Fifth.”

mu bold..I take it to mean “We’re going to school on her failure to properly stonewall, shred and delete.”

If you haven’t read Digby’s series “Blog Against Theocracy” please go read it…he has part five up right now. Also go to the Digby archives and find the first four, it’s the best contemporary political-intellectual history of the current christofascist movement.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, WE GOTTA KEEP THE CHILDREN SAFE FROM THE PRIESTS AND MINISTERS!!

Hey from Russia. I was sitting at the window looking at two white horses and a carriage in the light April snow, enjoying my beef stroganoff and wifi, when the wifi went poof. I suppose all dreams must end at some point. But the horses are really cool.

We work tomorrow. Hope you guys had/are having a glorious Easter. Christianity is under assault not least from wingers that have a very odd interpretation of love your neighbor. Am trying to do the peacemaker thingie and it’s tough going. I feel I was called by God at an early age to do this work, and trust that He knows what He is doing.

The beauty of being mentally ill [not the phrase you hear every day] is that when regular life is difficult, you might as well do something really hard, because it’s not much different.

And here’s a lovely Latin list of looser logic: they use them all to great effect. It makes one wish to retaliate with argument Ad Baculum, but that would only be fighting fire with fire. A truly logical argument should be above that.

Speaking of which, let’s not (on today of all days) forget John McCain’s crack about Alzheimer’s patients being able to hide their own Easter eggs. That one line is a window into his soul. Or lack thereof

You may be right about McCain for that reason or another. Nonetheless, the prospect of watching your parent lose all their memories and mental faculties that made them ‘them’ is truly devastating. One way humans can keep their humanity is to maintain a respectful sense of humor. I am not saying McCain was doing that, I am saying that humor, even about the difficult situation of dementia and memory loss, can help the patient and can help those who day in and day out help the patient.

gonzalez has been practicing for the great hosing coming up later this month. He’s been doin practice congressional interviews- but he keeps fuckin everything up- getting the time sequences wrong and bein a general incompetent. His coaches are about ta strangle him..

There is always a danger in reading mythic texts literally. Some may be allegories. Some may be based on an actual happening that is then transmuted into something quite different. Some result from a compilation and conflation of several stories. Some may be efforts at explaining the world rationally but in the absence of any real scientific knowledge.

the plan to disienfranchise everyone who was not a loyalist to the elite class almost worked

that’s the problem…the fact that there were machinations to aquire power, this has always been and always will be the case

however, the only thing that brought failure and ruin to the current plan to create another robber baron society was the fact that rove, to whom they put all of their trust, is in fact a moron

he actually thought he could just pillage the middle class for the wealthy and nobody would notice

he actually thought he could get the voting machines fixed enough

and he actually thought enough people would vote against themselves long enough to make a reversal impossible

so now here we are, we have been given one more chance and hopefully we will have enough time and we will be diligent enough…hopefully we will be strong enough to DEMAND the treasure stolen from the middle class is returned

we need to etch into the marble stone of our republic that this is a government FOR THE PEOPLE, it is a government BY THE PEOPLE

we have to make what happened under Bush can never happen again

WE MUST MAKE POLITICAL OFFICE PUBLICLY FINANCED

we must RESCIND personhood for corporations…if we need a constitutional amendment, believe me, Americans will support that amendment

we must prevent big bussiness and big money from having the oportunity to buy law

THAT is the most important thing for use to accomplish if we are to keep our republic

Jimmy Stewert was very right wing in his politics, I believe. I am NOT talking about the politics of any actors roles.

Jimmy Stewart was a conservative but never a right wing nutcase in a literal sense. Am just saying political history will treat him much more kindly than garden variety Hollywood legends, i.e. Ronald Reagan.

Come January ‘09, I hope the Dems fire every single lawyer who ever went to Robertson’s lame-ass ‘university’. As well as anyone THEY hired as underlings.

Perhaps Regent Madrassah University and the Federalist Society should be classified terrorist organizations by the next president. I’m sure that John Yoo and David Addington would agree that is well within the power of the unitary executive to do that.

Which has adversely affected the life of the average American more, ELF (Earth Liberation Front) or Regent School of Law? Just askin’.

gonzalez has been practicing for the great hosing coming up later this month. He’s been doin practice congressional interviews- but he keeps fuckin everything up- getting the time sequences wrong and bein a general incompetent. His coaches are about ta strangle him..

gonzalez has been practicing for the great hosing coming up later this month. He’s been doin practice congressional interviews- but he keeps fuckin everything up- getting the time sequences wrong and bein a general incompetent. His coaches are about ta strangle him..

Jimmy Stewert was very right wing in his politics, I believe. I am NOT talking about the politics of any actors roles.

He was a retired AF Reserve Colonel or Brigadier General iirc.

I don’t know about his personal politics, but, already a movie star. Stewart volunteered for duty in the Army Air Force and flew many bombing missions over Europe.

While St. Ronnie was tomcatting in the Hollywood Hills.

I don’t know about his personal politics either, but his AF story is inspiring (to me, anyway). He joined in WWII as an aviation cadet and finished WWII as a full colonel (which takes about 20 years these days, but it was a different situation back then). He then stayed in the Reserves, eventually retiring as a 1-star general. That’s impressive, considering he was an actor.

It’s true that he was a bomber pilot in SAC, and the God of SAC was Curtis LeMay, cigar-chomping scourge of godless Communists. But the officer corps up until the 60s was more representative of America as a whole, and it was only later in the 80s that it began to tilt so heavily to the Right. (Part of that was the Left’s retreat from military service, especially at elite schools, but that’s another story.)

So, citing that Stewart was an AF officer in reference to his alleged right-wing politics saddens me, because we really need a broadly-based officer corps and it would be nice if the stereotype wasn’t that officers are axiomatically conservative or wing-nuts. Sigh.

was reminded of ML Von Franz’s jungian deconstruction of euro fairy tales. lotta insight in her work w/o anyone having to actually believe that Hansel and Gretal were real children who got lost in a real forest …

the great stories and great books are great for a reason. and not cause they’re “true”, but cause of the insight they give us.

and at this time, it’s all about actually growing up and being adults, as individuals, a culture, and a species. One of the characteristics of being an adult is dealing w/ reality as it actually is.

… Churchill, of course, was also famous for the phrase “A new Dark Age”. They will take us there, if we let them.

And, keeping in mind what the Bushies have done to the EPA, stem cell research, the FDA and so many more science-based activities on which our Government depends, may I quote a tad more extensively from Churchill’s “This was their Finest Hour” speech before the House of Commons, June 18, 1940…

… But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

I’m surprised no one has brought up Ms. Goodling and the Ninth Commandment: you shall not bear false witness. Ninth Commandment, Fifth Amendment, Ninth Commandment, Fifth Amendment? Hmmm. In a pinch, Goodling appears to be a securalist after all.

Lately, when the wingnuts are braying about posting the Ten Commandments in government buildings, I always think that for the duration of the Bush Administration, maybe we could compromise and just post:

Thou shalt not bear false witness

(I’d add “thou shalt not steal,” but I doubt any of these yahoos would ever stop rationalizing and admit that looting the Treasury for your cronies is stealing.)

I just read American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges–I must read after reading about Goodling. Chris Hedges talks about dominionists wanting to create a Christian State.
I would love to give Chris Hedges a voice here on the Lake to talk about his book. Not sure who to suggest this to?

Chris Hedges recently spoke on this at the Cambridge Forum; you can stream or download the lecture here; it’s well worth a listen.

So every US Attorney deserves scrutiny. Wisconsin in particular. There’s a federal indictment against Dennis Troha for filtering money through family members to Governor Doyle’s campaign, but even though there is the very same pattern of giving to the Bush presidency campaign, the spokesman for the US Attorney Dept. can’t tell reporters whether that is a subject of investigation too.

Jimmy Stewert was very right wing in his politics, I believe. I am NOT talking about the politics of any actors roles.

He was a retired AF Reserve Colonel or Brigadier General iirc.

I don’t know about his personal politics, but, already a movie star. Stewart volunteered for duty in the Army Air Force and flew many bombing missions over Europe.

While St. Ronnie was tomcatting in the Hollywood Hills.

I don’t know about his personal politics either, but his AF story is inspiring (to me, anyway). He joined in WWII as an aviation cadet and finished WWII as a full colonel (which takes about 20 years these days, but it was a different situation back then). He then stayed in the Reserves, eventually retiring as a 1-star general. That’s impressive, considering he was an actor.

It’s true that he was a bomber pilot in SAC, and the God of SAC was Curtis LeMay, cigar-chomping scourge of godless Communists. But the officer corps up until the 60s was more representative of America as a whole, and it was only later in the 80s that it began to tilt so heavily to the Right. (Part of that was the Left’s retreat from military service, especially at elite schools, but that’s another story.)

So, citing that Stewart was an AF officer in reference to his alleged right-wing politics saddens me, because we really need a broadly-based officer corps and it would be nice if the stereotype wasn’t that officers are axiomatically conservative or wing-nuts. Sigh.

Amen to that re: officers, of course I’m biased, my dad was a LtCol in the Marines
Flew transports in WW2 and close air support in Korea F4U Corsair. Got out in 64 with 28 years.

I just finished reading the New Yorker piece mentioned in the last thread on Wolfowitz at the World Bank. It meanders in that typical New Yorker way, but hits the mark in depicting Wolfowitz as someone determined to shake things up, in much the same way as Bush and Cheney did with American foreign policy and with similar results. He has carried to the World Bank other hallmarks of the Bush Administration, notably cronyism. As the article makes clear, Wolfowitz is a poor administrator and not an effective leader. Many of his senior staff have left. He is capricious. He is an enforcer of rules but does not himself feel bound by them. He remains an ideologue, placing his conception of the truth above the knowledge and experience of those around him. In short, this is the same Wolfowitz who cheerleaded and deceived us in the Iraq disaster. His tenure at the World Bank is not about personal redemption but is, in fact, just another case of wingnut welfare.

Thanks for correcting a mistake made by tens of thousands of college students and would be insiders who want to mimic Uncle Karl.

Mr. Rove is like Holmes. He reads voraciously, but retains selectively. Unlike Holmes, he always divorces his source texts – from Sun Tzu to Goebbels – from their context. If an idea works for him, he doesn’t care where it came from or what suffering it caused. He’s good to go.

I doubt that I will read it myself because I have never had the illusion of “having” God. So, what is there to let go of? I don’t even have an image of God (be it the old man with the beard or the force that keeps the galacies in their orbits). I feel life … with gratitude, and I try to give back to it according to my powers and insights. (The word “god” sometimes helps the discourse, but that is debatable right now, when so many peoples try to kill each other in his name).

I still see humor in this bumper sicker:

JESUS IS COMING
AND BOY IS HE PISSED

and if the shoe fits …
but I do agree with you there: Most people will try to put the slipper on the other person’s foot.

The problem with these religious fanatics is that they believe that they are special people favored by God, and if they are doing it, it is okay. When things don’t go the way they think it should, they just say their opponents are the devil’s workers and that it is all part of God’s plan. That is why these right-wing, political cult groups are so dangerous. The Moonies are also a good example of this. It is like Jim Jones on a supermassive scale.

Needed advice on the rules:
Can she take the Fifth and thereby avoid appearing before the cmte.? Or, must she appear and take the Fifth to each question posed? I remember black & white TV days: I refuse to answer under the fifth Amendment because to do so would tend to incriminate me. Is that how you remember it? Anyone?

You realize, of course, that by invoking Demille’s Ten Commandments, you risk re-awakening Heston?

Is that something you want to do?

And what would we prize from his cold, dead hand, I wonder?

The analogy of building the medieval church is a good one. In anticipating the Second Coming, it was thought that all manner of repression and barbarity was “just”, so long as it brought all in the world to “the love of Christ”. Once all were of his Church, then he would come again.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Rove ignore what the medieval church never knew, how wide and diverse is human history and culture. In the end, they chose the brutal path of Constantine: use the sword to command a church, in order to command an empire.

I’m late at reading today’s posts, Christy, but I have to say, “Hurrah for Christy!” for the last paragraph in your post below.

I am an American, I refuse to sit back and quake in my chair, waiting for someone to strike. I will be damned if some crazy terrorist — or some smarmy political operative — is going to silence me, or frighten me, or make me do anything other than live my life to the fullest in my own way every day. To do otherwise is to hand over control of my life and my thoughts to someone else — and that is about as unAmerican as it comes. Everything else is counterproductive to the notions of justice, liberty and freedom. Try keeping that in mind, folks in the media and in politics, would you?

I write for a small newspaper and I live near DC. Around the first of the year, I dropped by my Republican county supervisor’s office to get a quote from him about something of local interest. He wasn’t in, so I engaged in conversation with his receptionist. Everything went well until we hit on red light cameras (Hey, I don’t know how we got on that one, either.), when the women said, “We absolutely need them. We need to have as much protection as we can from the terrorists.”

Man, the stupidity is alive and well. Just as telling — Bush appointed the previous chair of the county commission to head the Maritime Commission

****
That, I think, is the A an O if persons such as you and me will want, not only survive but also flourish and lead a good and free life.

Considering that corporations exist only by Charter, we the people could simply revoke the Charter. But just because it is simple, does not mean that it is easy.

How do you want to start?
How do we revoke their personhood, that is, their rights without concomitant responsibilities?

I believe there is a supreme court decision that awards personhood to corporations…in the form of free speech, the supreme court has claimed restricitons on campaign financing is a violation of free speech

with a corporate influenced supreme court we will probably need a constitutional amendment that revokes personhood to any organization that exists by charter

we will need to revoke personhood from churches as well…freedom of religion does not mean personhood to religion

****
That, I think, is the A an O if persons such as you and me will want, not only survive but also flourish and lead a good and free life.

Considering that corporations exist only by Charter, we the people could simply revoke the Charter. But just because it is simple, does not mean that it is easy.

How do you want to start?
How do we revoke their personhood, that is, their rights without concomitant responsibilities?

I believe there is a supreme court decision that awards personhood to corporations…in the form of free speech, the supreme court has claimed restricitons on campaign financing is a violation of free speech

with a corporate influenced supreme court we will probably need a constitutional amendment that revokes personhood to any organization that exists by charter

we will need to revoke personhood from churches as well…freedom of religion does not mean personhood to religion

What a pithy observation. It should be carved in stone above the entrance of every business school in America and inserted into the oath of office for all of the modern presidents who imagine themselves as the nation’s CEO.

Should you from the height of your greatness some time turn your eyes to these humble regions, you will become aware how undeservedly I have to endure the keen and unremitting malignity of Fortune.

Machiavelli’s career in government in Florence started in 1494, and he wants his job back, working for the Medici this time. He begs to serve them, and in The Prince wants to show how he can.

If it’s a cautionary tale at all, it’s a cautionary tale to megalomaniacs who have just taken over a principality for the first time, and want to keep their power, and in this regard, “user’s manual” is a more appropriate characterization.

Deep in EPU territory here, but all of this is a manifestation of the malignant, retro, pre-Enlightenment poison of Leo Strauss.

All you need to know about Strauss is that the people who believe his bullshit are the same ones who read Plato’s Republic and automatically think they’ll be the Philosopher-Kings, even when they’re dumber than dirt and have zero knack for true philosophy.

This is what drives me nuts about so many “born agains.” You can do whatever evil things you wish, as long as you “repent” right before you die. Yes, that is a crap-shoot — you could be killed in a car wreck tomorrow. But most take that risk. Look at Lee Atwater — how sorry he was on his deathbed!

To all that, I say BS. If you ARE a Christian, you act like it every day. That is why I laugh, looking at Bush, Rove, Novak, etc. — going to church. What a laugh.

The Prince may advocate ruthlessness, it also advocates restraint, self-knowledge, knowledge of one’s opponents, and marshalling resources for optimum use. Mr. Bush does not do subtle; he does not drink by the glass, he drinks by the bottle.

All or nothing, would not have been Machiavelli’s advice, unless he thought it a sure winner for a particular moment. He knew that you had to expect to meet the same foe again and again. Hence, diplomacy. Ignoring a foe until it submits of its own accord is the surest route to nurture it, not defeat it.

Machiavelli would have recommended that course only to a client who needed imaginary foes so that his subjects would have a false sense of his client’s indispensability, and so would ignore his weaknesses. Hmmm.

The Prince may advocate ruthlessness, it also advocates restraint, self-knowledge, knowledge of one’s opponents, and marshalling resources for optimum use.

Of course. I think the present Administration has worked particularly with the first and last of these. The need for restraint was limited while the Republican Congress provided a firewall. Leaving the Chimp to one side, Rove and Cheney have shown that they are masters of their own and their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses.

[Machiavelli] knew that you had to expect to meet the same foe again and again. Hence, diplomacy. Ignoring a foe until it submits of its own accord is the surest route to nurture it, not defeat it.

Well, what is the foe? Here, the foe is the Democratic Party, the only plausible obstacle to the dream of a one party state Permanent Republican Majority. This was Rove’s War, and Diplomacy doesn’t figure in it, the DoJ does. Rove’s ‘06 confidence that he had The Numbers when he didn’t may be where Fortune saved us.

Machiavelli would have recommended that course only to a client who needed imaginary foes so that his subjects would have a false sense of his client’s indispensability, and so would ignore his weaknesses. Hmmm.

IMHO that is spot on for the GWOT, and (pace Gore Vidal and Orwell) a significant component of the basis for the Cold War.

****
That, I think, is the A an O if persons such as you and me will want, not only survive but also flourish and lead a good and free life.

Considering that corporations exist only by Charter, we the people could simply revoke the Charter. But just because it is simple, does not mean that it is easy.

How do you want to start?
How do we revoke their personhood, that is, their rights without concomitant responsibilities?

I believe there is a supreme court decision that awards personhood to corporations…in the form of free speech, the supreme court has claimed restricitons on campaign financing is a violation of free speech

with a corporate influenced supreme court we will probably need a constitutional amendment that revokes personhood to any organization that exists by charter

we will need to revoke personhood from churches as well…freedom of religion does not mean personhood to religion

etc

Then we need to organize and do it; it will not happen by itself.

Are either of you two lawyers? I ask because I have not seen anyone outside of Thom Hartman raise this argument—one which I wholeheartedly support with respect to corporations.

some place in the bible we are told to pay ceasar ceasar’s due but not to take part in other ways. My take was you have to pay taxes but any more than that will make the big man upstairs mad as hell at you. This makes sense if you care how the big guy thinks. The logic must be do not put your faith in any of man’s attempts at governing cause they are just to damn greedy and the big guy never got into bowling for dollars, got to go slop thr hogs.